David Wilkerson is the author of The Cross and the Switchblade, one of the most popular books in evangelical history. (It's ranked #32 in Christianity Today's list of "Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals.") On March 7, Wilkerson posted an "urgent message". It began:

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE — EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US. For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires — such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting — including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God's wrath.

Then at the end he wrote:

Note: I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.

Wait just a minute! Why pick on major cities here? Why not some small towns instead? And doesn't this already describe certain streets in NYC anyway? Besides, why are preachers like him so interested in a doom and gloom message? Is it that they are secretly upset at Americans and want them to suffer and die? Is it to raise money? Is there some correlation with a rise in gifts when the message is one of doom and gloom?

But how can we hold Wilkerson's face to the floor on this prediction? Is it too vague to do so? The subtitle says that "An Earth-Shattering Calamity Is About To Happen." Earth shattering? I'm sure we would all recognize this if it happened, right? Is the time limit for the prediction too vague? Why is this an "urgent" message if the events are not to happen for another year? What does the word "urgent" in "urgent message" mean? And if it does not happen in Wilkerson's lifetime will the Christian community rise up as one and denouce him as a false prophet?

Ha, ha. I know the answers. This would be sad if it weren't so damn funny. As far as I know if we just laugh hard enough at him we may find Wilkerson and some members of his church secretly trying to start these fires and looting themselves just to get the ball rolling!

19
comments:

Wilkerson using the word "worldwide" gives him a good out considering that large forest fires happen on a yearly basis in places like California and Australia. Plus there are large riots in major cities all the time, just look at Greece and France recently. He should have added that there will be conflicts in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa just so that he could cover all the bases.

And the "I do not know when these things will come to pass" sentence at the end is just precious. He should have added "These prophecies are provided for entertainment purposes only, and as such, they come with no guarantee of accuracy or usability of the information and advice contained within."

Why didn't he mention another country even? It has to be New York City? Not Beijing? I mean if its the end of the world, doesn't that imply we all go?

Why do the Evangelicals think its okay to wish harm on people? Wishing your own country to blow up (which he isn't doing here per se, but I've heard some conservatives say they do) is Anti-American. It really upsets me that anyone would wish for people (in their country, nonetheless!) to be murdered. That is simply wrong.

Rose, you beat me to the punch. I was going to say maybe Wilkerson's prediction will correspond to that of Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar's prediction for the end of the world in 2012. Hold me, I'm scared.

Of course, he doesn't give any specific time frame. He'll be able to milk this "prediction" for quite awhile. At least until the GOP is back in charge. Then he'll say we averted disaster because of faith ... or prayer ... or sumpin'

heh heh. if you read around about this, you will find them saying we should put great faith in this prediction and stockpile emergency supplies to last 30 days. why? on 31st day, god will provide? and they say we should pay attention to this man because on 9/10, god told him to make sandwiches and in a great act of faith, he and his congregation made sandwiches and then 9/11 happened so they had sandwiches for emergency workers. they are all agoo about this miracle. yet no one remembers it or remembers participating or remembers hearing about it at the time - seems like great big urban legend! and if god DID know and only tell him to make sandwiches and not, oh maybe, tell airline employees names of people not to let on airplanes, their god is pretty petty and ineffectual and they should want to HIDE the sandwich story, not prclaim it a miracle. they are all so silly!

I don't want to pile on this guy. And as a brother in Christ I'd like to have his back. But you guys salivate over these kind of stories, yes he's one of us, but every time one of these guys comes out with these silly predictions, there are 20 more of us rolling our eyes.

I remember in 7th grade at Sacred Heart school sitting in Sr. Christine's class and pooping my pants because she told us that by the time we would have our drivers license we'd all be on the metric system. That was 33 years ago and probably the last time I took any prediction serious. If it wasn't for 2 liters of soda I wouldn't know what any metric measurement was.

You want a prediction, O.K. red alert the Louisville Cardinals will win the NCAA tournament this year.

goprairie: even the WorldNetDaily, which I suspect is a Ray Comfort mouthpiece, has repudiated the 9/11 sandwich story. I guess someone woke up to the fact that this kind of story, involving a whole lot of peanut butter, would be easy to disconfirm.

"Ha, ha. I know the answers. This would be sad if it weren't so damn funny. As far as I know if we just laugh hard enough at him we may find Wilkerson and some members of his church secretly trying to start these fires and looting themselves just to get the ball rolling!"

Wilkerson is a obviously a nutjob but isn't the above quote from John simply juvenile? Why not feel compassion for people so disturbed? For myself, I'll choose compassion, not hate.

No. He's a marketing pragmatists who knows how to push the buttons of nut jobs.

2. Doom and gloom

As I was disassociating my mind from the illusions of religion, I was listening to a Southern Gospel radio station. I occurred to me that the songs glorified death! Looking forward to seeing Jesus, loved one who have gone before, etc.

It matters little that the original source of the sandwich story has 'take it back'. It got copied and summarized and retold so many times over the next few days that it is part of the myth set now. It was included in countless Sunday sermons over the weekend. A great many people BELIEVE it really happened, despite the illogical aspects of the story. I was discussing some of the obvious flaws in the story at lunch yesterday with a friend whose mother owned all they guy's books and some fellow diners gave me the death glare and left the restaurant. I was kind scared as they passed closer to our table than need be, glaring all the while.